CHELSEA hope to have David Luiz back from injury for the Boxing Day clash with Fulham, but will definitely be hunting for defensive cover in the transfer window, says the boss.

The Blues' lack of option was exposed at Tottenham when Branislav Ivanovic limped off early on and Jose Bosingwa had to be deployed in central defence.

With Alex (pictured) frozen out since his transfer request, Andre Villas-Boas could do with reinforcements, with interest having been openly admitted in Bolton's Gary Cahill.

“We will be in the marked for a centre half,” Villas-Boas said.

“That's pretty obvious based on the fact we have accepted Alex's transfer request. It doesn't mean that it is happening - we have to wait for the market to find out what is happening regarding Alex - but we will have to respond quickly in the market because we are willing to fill that position with one more central defender.

“David Luiz may be in contention for Fulham but if not Oriol [Romeu] or Jose Bosingwa both can play in that position and Paulo [Ferreira] has in the past.

“We spoke about Cahill already. I think he is extremely interesting and talented player, but I cannot speculate a lot about a player who doesn't belong to me. It's also not fair to Owen Coyle. We would also be stupid to shorten our targets just to one.”